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hardcore_gamer

A question about limes, water, and teeth

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So I have treated my teeth like complete crap and as a result my dentist has told me that if I don't stop drinking soda outside of moderate amounts during the weekends then my teeth will completely go away.

Because of this, I am trying to find something else to replace soda.

So my question is, is carbonated water with a few slices of lime put into it bad for your teeth?

I know limes and lemons contain acids which probably aren't good for you, but does it matter that much if you just throw 2-3 slices into a glass of carbonated water? Or will the acids still harm your teeth?

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If your teeth are already that weak, any acid will harm your teeth.


Edit: and brush/floss/fluoride rinse, already.

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If you really must have carbonated beverages, I'd suggest you switch to sugar-free stuff, and lay off regular soda entirely. It's what I did when my teeth began to suffer, and it's made a huge difference.

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Csonicgo said:

any acid will harm your teeth.


Any acid will harm your teeth when you have TOO MUCH of it. That is why I asked if a few slices of lime in a glass of carbonated water are bad for you. Because I know lime and lemos contain acids but I don't know if they are actually that bad for you if its just a few slices mixed with some water.

Caffeine Freak said:

If you really must have carbonated beverages, I'd suggest you switch to sugar-free stuff


Carbonated water with lemons or limes don't contain any suger.

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Lime/lemon water is a little stressful for the mouth but a vacation compared to soda, IMHO. It only gets bad when children bite wedges of acidic fruit and suck out the juice.

Alcohol in small amounts is decent for oral health. So is chewing sugarless gum after meals.

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Yeah, water is wonderful. If you're still craving after drinking water, just drink more water. Drink enough and the urge goes away. This is kind of a mantra for me. Something wrong? Drink water.

It's great for headache, anyway.

P.S. is fruit juice not recommended? Because a good, strong glass of medical grade cranberry juice can be pretty satisfying.

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I switched to tea. There are so many varieties and many of them are excellent with no sweetener. Water is nice when it's too hot for tea, or when I think I've had too much.

Why don't I buy pop? Because I'm not willing to give up beer, and having a few of those a week is bad enough for me without throwing fizzy sugar water into the mix.

(Disclaimer: was at a party today. Had a root beer and a Coke for a change from all the beer.)

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Aliotroph? said:

Why don't I buy pop? Because I'm not willing to give up beer, and having a few of those a week is bad enough for me without throwing fizzy sugar water into the mix.


Let alone that, as my father says, while beer is 100% natural and made only with water, hops, etc., sodas, pop, fruit juices etc. are made from colourants, additives, sugar, preservatives etc. so beer is also healthier :-D

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Please please please just drink water. Anything with citric acid will continue to damage your teeth even if its the slightest bit of acid. Sugar will damage your teeth.

Another uncle made the switch from various sodas to orange juice since its healthier. Yet it still continues to fuck up his teeth. His dentist even told him not to drink OJ because his teeth are so fragile and well.... he has partial dentures now when he was the age of 55. But that was probably due to the sodas.

JUST WATER!

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I quit drinking soda two years ago and felt much better because of it. I can't even drink it now because of how sweet it is, anyone else that has quit will usually say the same. I'm convinced that soda is the leading cause of obesity and other health issues.

Caffeine Freak said:

Lemons and limes both contain sugar.


Fruit does naturally contain a good amount of sugar, but there's a difference between natural sugars and refined white sugar or high fructose corn syrup.

Maes said:

while beer is 100% natural and made only with water, hops, etc.,


Only micros and a few imports (German,Belgian) are made from four ingredients (water,malt,hops,yeast). I don't know what they sell in Greece, but here in North America 99% of the beer sold is chock full of additives (HFCS,coloring) and preservatives.

If you want to consume alcohol, the "healthiest" choice is unadulterated spirits. You have to be careful here though because some types like rum and brandy have added sugar but don't advertise it.

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Instead of acidic stuff, try tea sweeteneed with stevia powder or extract. If you don't need/want the caffeine, you can get herbal teas. Just brew it yourself, since the bottled stuff always has some small amount of citric acid. You can drink it cold/iced too.

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Drink less water. Then, once your saliva is thick and mucousy it should provide a natural protective barrier from acids. Enjoy all the soda you want.

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geo said:

Please please please just drink water. Anything with citric acid will continue to damage your teeth even if its the slightest bit of acid.


Water is too plain.

Also, ANYTHING will damage your health slowly over time. I don't care if my teeth get damaged over time so long as it doesn't happen at a pace that is not normal. Nobody has 100% clean teeth, and that's fine. I am willing to live with my teeth not being 100% good by the time that I die.

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Scet said:

Only micros and a few imports (German,Belgian) are made from four ingredients (water,malt,hops,yeast). I don't know what they sell in Greece, but here in North America 99% of the beer sold is chock full of additives (HFCS,coloring) and preservatives.


HFSC and coloring in beer?! As if it was hard to get it naturally yellow due to fermentation? Fuck that man, if that's true then I can understand why most Americans consider (their) beer akin to a mixture of diluted horse, camel and jackal urine. I have seen colouring being used in low-end whiskey, but there I can understand it due to it being hard/long to brew. But beer?!

Probably overlaps with there's no Fresh Milk (TM) in the USA, which, if the info is accurate, means that Americans get to drink only some sort of additive-pumped, chemically treated stuff that LOOKS like milk, but is so unlike milk that it can survive for a month out of the fridge even if opened. WTF, America.

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hardcore_gamer said:

Water is too plain.


Then drink unsweetened iced tea like me.

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hardcore_gamer said:

Water is too plain.


You could use water flavorings like MiO, but those things probably have some other health issue.

Maes said:

I have seen colouring being used in low-end whiskey, but there I can understand it due to it being hard/long to brew.


Whiskey isn't brewed, it's distilled from beer, all distillate is clear before aging. Coloring isn't just for the low-end stuff, there are $100 bottles of Scotch with coloring. In general if it isn't straight bourbon/rye or the label says "no coloring", then it has E150 caramel coloring. Scotch/Irish whisky is aged in used bourbon barrels which don't give off a lot of color. They add color because people reach for the darkest bottle.

Maes said:

Milk


I could go on forever about how awful the food industry here is.

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Fun fact: carbonated water contains carbonic acid and is thus acidic with or without the citrus.

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Funny, I saw a dentist recently and he told me much the same thing. Reeled off a whole list of drinks I should avoid from now one (e.g. everything but water). Also told me not to rinse out my mouth when I was finished brushing, just kinda leave the remnant toothpaste swilling around in there. Lovely.

I would guess that the acidic content of water with fruit slices will roughly scale with how sweet it is. So adding a single piece probably won't be too bad, whereas slicing up a whole lemon and jamming it in there will give you something akin to soda. Doomworld probably isn't the best place to ask for advice though, talk to your dentist again.

Or, maybe buy some of those pH testing strips you use in school science experiments, and use them to check how acidic various drinks are?

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Yeah, I have some significant acid erosion on my teeth as well. However, I obsess over dental hygiene. I brush sometimes six times a day.

I enjoy drinking a coke a day, so I'll allow myself a bottle at dinner time. The idea here is the amount of time you drink it. You can have a single coke and extend the amount of damage done to your teeth by not drinking immediately, but drinking it over an extended period of time.

exp(x) said:

Fun fact: carbonated water contains carbonic acid and is thus acidic with or without the citrus.

Goddamn you Perrier, you too?

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I've been hooked on iced black tea ever since my dad would brew big pitchers of it and take it outside with us while we worked. So not only do I like it because of the taste but also due to the sentimental value as my father isn't here anymore.

And use straws man. Any soda I drink is usually with a straw (i've got the re-usable freezable hard plastic ones that look like fast food cups but you know, transparent) and I get pretty much none of it on my teeth. But don't get really weird and anal about it like that one couple who freaked whenever coffee touched their teeth. Shit, even when drinking from a plain glass I really don't let anything touch my teeth, it might also be the way you drink it.

Also, making flavored sparkling water (carbonated water + natural fruit juices) is a much better alternative to soda. In fact as I type I have a bottle of ruby grapefruit sitting in my fridge.

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exp(x) said:

Fun fact: carbonated water contains carbonic acid and is thus acidic with or without the citrus.


This is very misleading.

Yes technically there are some acids, but they are so slight that they don't really damage your teeth.

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the fact is that human beings were not meant to live past 40 years. Your teeth, without intervention, evolved to crumble at 40. think of it as the oral menopause and the point at which your life ceased to have meaning from an evolutionary standpoint.

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I've been drinking craptons of club soda and lime for the last year or so. I have basically no teeth problems. Local water isn't flouridated, either.

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